Delta Blues

Louisiana faces the highest rates of sea level rise in the world. As policy and funding debates rage over how to best restore and protect our coastal communities, local leaders also look for allies elsewhere. On the other side of the globe, they've found sympathetic ears in Vietnam.

Credit Jesse Hardman

That nation also has a below-sea-level city at the mouthof a great river. The 8 million residents of Ho Chi Minh City, or Saigon, live along the Mekong River, as we do the Mississippi. The delta beyond that city, like ours, is sinking, and saltwater from the nearby sea threatens to eat away at the coastline.

"Delta Blues: Water and Climate Change from the Mississippi to the Mekong” examines shared flooding and saltwater intrusion issues facing two great river deltas, the Mississippi and the Mekong, and the conversation developing between them to address those challenges.

WWNO’s Eve Troeh and Jesse Hardman traveled to Vietnam to explore the connection between the two regions, and to report on how both are planning for and living with climate change day by day.

WWNO News Director Eve Troeh visited Vietnam on assignment to report on the effects of climate change in a place with water challenges similar to New Orleans. She says it was an adventure unlike any she has recently experienced.

Louisiana faces the highest relative rates of sea level rise in the world. As policy and funding debates rage over how to best restore and protect our coastal communities, local leaders also look for allies elsewhere.

On the other side of the globe, Louisiana has found sympathetic ears in Vietnam. That nation also has a below-sea-level region at the mouth of a great river. Increased conversation and meetings aim to find out how shared geography might lead to shared solutions.

Louisiana faces the highest relative rates of sea level rise in the world. As policy and funding debates rage over how to best restore and protect our coastal communities, local leaders also look for allies elsewhere.

Louisiana faces the highest relative rates of sea level rise in the world. As policy and funding debates rage over how to best restore and protect our coastal communities, local leaders also look for allies elsewhere.